Totsukawa Village, Tamaki Mountain, Tamaki Shrine, Sasa Waterfall

Road trip time!

If you take a 3 hour drive out of Osaka, down to Nara-ken to a place called Yoshino-gun, you’ll find a village known as Totsukawa (十津川) way on the south side of the prefecture. From there, you can visit Tamaki mountain, Tamaki Shrine (玉置神社), Sasa Waterfall (笹の滝), an Onsen town, and of course, eat lots of great food.

The area is a UNESCO World Heratige site, and the mountain has some incredibly old Japanese cedar. One of the oldest, at 3000 years old, is right behind Tamaki shrine, one of the highlights of the area.

Fuji FinePix F10 and Harvey’s amateur 腕 workin’ out the Tamaki Shrine pictures. Really though, it is a cool looking Shrine high in the mountains. It seems to be covered by mist most of the time… I think it might be magical.

The Tamaki area is, after all, a tourist destination in Japan, but it didn’t have the overly in your face touristy feel that other areas do. It was very relaxed and quiet. We didn’t even run into many people at Sasa Waterfall, and the shrine, two of the major stops. Maybe it was off-season? Or, maybe we were just lost and in the wrong place?

The waterfall was very impressive. Apparently there is a waterfall ranking in Japan known as 日本の滝百選 (nihon no taki hyakusen, literally, Japan’s waterfalls, 100 selection). It is a big list of the top 100 waterfalls in the country that was created in 1990 by the Ministry of Environment, and Sasae Taki made the list! At number 64… But I don’t think the number has any significance. Congratulations Sasa Waterfall. Previously introduced Kegon waterfall in Nikko is also on the list by the way.

The sound of this waterfall was great. Maybe I’ve just been in the city too long staring at my computer screen, but I really enjoyed it. Also, unlike Kegon waterfall in Nikko, you could climb right up to this one and feel the mist on your face. I could have hung out there for hours.

We did this as a day trip, and didn’t leave so early in the morning so we were only really able to do the mountain, the shrine, and the waterfall. In addition to these locations, there is also a 吊り橋, or suspension bridge, hanging across the valley. The unique thing is that the bridge is super long, done with rope, and made for pedestrians only. There is also a hot springs called Kakenagashi (かけ流し温泉) Onsen, which I didn’t get a chance to visit this time. There is a picture of the bridge on the Japanese wikipedia entry for Totsukawa.

If you’ve got some free time in the Kansai region, give it a shot! It’s a great trip.

The villages are waiting! So are all the trees. Hope you’re not allergic to cedar!

- Harvey